Reprint: The End

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Alfred Bester, Brian Aldiss, Carolyn See, Clifford D. Simak, Douglas Adams, Edgar Pangborn, Elizabeth Hand, George R. Stewart, Greg Bear, H.G. Wells, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Jack London, James Morrow, John Wyndham, Keith Roberts, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Nevil Shute, Octavia Butler, Peter George, Philip Latham, Piers Anthony, Raymond Briggs, Richard Jefferies, Ronald Wright, Russell Hoban, Stephen Baxter, Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I had great plans for my Cognitive Mapping series that ran in Vector between 1995 and 2001. At one point I envisaged producing 100 of the columns, which could then be gathered together as a decent-sized book. But at some point the project ran out of steam. I had maybe another half-dozen columns started but never completed. Apart from a parody piece (written by another hand, not naming names Mr B****r), the column was over. But at the end of 2005 I produced one last hurrah, appropriately enough on how science fiction deals with the end of things. This last column was published in Vector 244, November-December 2005.

Reprint: Sex and/or Mr Morrison

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Carol Emshwiller, Damon Knight, Fritz Leiber, Harlan Ellison, Larry Niven, Philip K. Dick, Poul Anderson, William Blake

This is one of my In Short columns, dealing with Carol Emshwiller’s story from Dangerous Visions. It first appeared in Vector 282, Winter 2015-16.

Reprint: A Doubled Life

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Alice B. Sheldon, Barry Malzberg, David Gerrold, Harlan Ellison, James Tiptree Jr, Jeffrey D. Smith, Joanna Russ, Julie Phillips, Mary Hastings Bradley, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Raccoona Sheldon, Robert Silverberg, Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K. Le Guin

James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips was one of the finest literary biographies it has been my pleasure to read. Naturally, Interzone decided it should be appreciated with a double review, so Maureen Kincaid Speller and I agreed to split the job between us. First published in Interzone 205, August 2006, Maureen’s review concentrated on the life, while mine concentrated on the career (though there were inevitable overlaps). You can read Maureen’s review here at Paperknife, while mine follows the cut.

Reprint: God

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Andrew M. Greely, Anthony Boucher, Arthur C Clarke, Dan Simmons, David Zindell, Donald Barthelme, Francis Godwin, Garry Kilworth, Harlan Ellison, Harry Harrison, James Blish, James Morrow, m john harrison, Mary Doria Russell, Michael Bishop, Michael Moorcock, Olaf Stapledon, Paul McAuley, Philip K. Dick, Poul Anderson, Robert Silverberg, Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, Walter M. Miller, William Tenn

And so, as we come to the end of another religious holiday, it is time to look at one of the most persistent themes of science fiction. It is a subject I find myself coming back to on a regular basis. I feel that God (as opposed to religion) has no part to play in science fiction, that the introduction of a figure who can casually change the whole nature of reality is lazy in science fictional terms. This particular iteration of the point came in one of my Cognitive Mapping columns that was first published in Vector 217 (May-June 2001).

Reprint: Conformity

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Bruce Sterling, Dean Ing, E.M. Forster, Elizabeth Hand, George Orwell, H.G. Wells, Harlan Ellison, Ian Watson, Isaac Asimov, J.G. Ballard, John Brunner, Margaret Atwood, Michael Marshall Smith, R.A. Lafferty, Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverberg, Thomas Jefferson, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Woody Allen

Here is another of my Cognitive Mapping columns, this one first appeared in Vector 205 (May-June 1999).

Reprint: Nebula Awards Showcase 2004

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A.E. Van Vogt, Adam-Troy Castro, Alexei Panshin, Allen Steele, Anna Kavan, Anthony Boucher, Arthur Sellings, Bob Shaw, Brian Aldiss, Carol Emshwiller, Charles Stross, Damon Knight, Darko Suvin, Frederik Pohl, Groff Conklin, Harlan Ellison, Harry Harrison, Jack McDevitt, Jerry Oltion, John Wyndham, Katherine MacLean, Lesley What, Megan Lindholm, Mervyn Peake, Michael Swanwick, Molly Gloss, Neil Gaiman, Peter Jackson, Poul Anderson, Ray Bradbury, Richard Chwedyk, Sharon Lee, Ted Chiang, Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda McIntyre, Willis E. McNelly, Willy Ley

I haven’t actually included any anthologies in my reprints so far, even though I have reviewed an awful lot of them. So I thought I should include one today. This review of Nebula Awards Showcase 2004 edited by Vonda N. McIntyre was, I think, written for The New York Review of Science Fiction, but I can’t find a record of it being published. So this may be its first appearance.

Reprint: Founded on the Shambles

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Alfred Bester, B.F. Skinner, Francis Bacon, Gene Wolfe, H.G. Wells, Harlan Ellison, Henry Neville, Jack Vance, James Tiptree Jr, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Lenin, Marge Piercy, Philip Jose Farmer, R.A. Lafferty, Samuel R. Delany, Terry Carr, Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, Ursula K. Le Guin, Utopia, Vonda McIntyre, W.H. Hudson, William James, William Morris, Yevgeny Zamiatin

Not a review this time, but an essay I wrote about ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ by Ursula K. Le Guin. This essay appeared in Vector 249, September-October 2006.